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Awareness Bringer: Frankly, I highly doubt such a thing is going to happen any time soon, but thanks for the heads up!

Chapter 3

Unnamed Bunker - 8:30 AM

"Is it time?"

"..Yes, they'll be here any minute. Are you well enough to.."

"Yeah, don't worry about me. You sure you know the layout?"

"Trust me, sonny."

"You know I do, unc."

The alotted period of three days had passed since Sonic's kidnapping and the fateful encounter with Zero. During that time, the cerulean Mobian had explained the bulk of his plan to his uncle, who eventually had given in and agreed to his nephew's idea. By the time Sonic had to be moved, the hedgehogs' joint escape plan had been fully discussed and ready to be set in motion.

In truth, although the hedgehog absolutely loathed the idea of being captured, his stay as a prisoner had surprisingly not as bad as he expected, though what he had been expecting was something along the lines of daily, excruciating physical and psychological torture. Sure, some of the jackals were definitely callous douchebags who would tend to take their frustrations out on the hedgehog, but the others generally didn't treat him as any less than a normal prisoner- granted he didn't rile them up, that is.

They, however, had looted Sonic of all the rings he had on his person. Callous douchebags indeed.

At any rate, it was time to set the plan in motion. Now all they had to do was wait.

Several minutes passed, which felt like hours to the blue hedgehog. Sonic was just about to go stir-crazy when Zero walked in, this time flanked by two more jackals.

"Hedgehogs. It's time to go." stated the leader of the Jackal Squad. As he spoke, one of the jackals, a female, approached Sonic with a piece of cloth. It was only when the jackal slid the wool over the hedgehog's eyes that he realized it was a blindfold.

The footsteps of another jackal approached him and soon he heard the rustling of metal, a clear sign that the chain around his leg was being removed. The hedgehog fought to keep himself from tensing, smirking or doing something else that would most likely give him away.

He would need to pull this off well and get it completely right. There likely wouldn't be any second chances if anything went wrong...

Click.

That final noise rang out, signaling that the chain around Sonic's leg had been removed.

Now.

In a mere millisecond, the Blue Blur had leapt to his feet and jumped to the other side of the room, ripping off the blindfold from his eyes as he sailed through the air. The jackals gave alarmed shouts but Sonic was much faster on the uptake, grabbing Chuck by the arm and rushing out of the open prison doors with his uncle in tow.

After they had put a good distance between themselves and those jackals, Sonic and Chuck skidded to a stop on the cement-linoleum floor.

"Unc, now's the time to put your layout knowledge to use." uttered the younger of the two hedgehogs, looking around. The hallways were a rather drab grey with patches of brown interspersed.

"Of course. Follow me." stated Chuck, walking off in a direction as Sonic followed, hiding a grimace at the paint-job of the halls.

Soon enough, however, they had encountered some jackals, who, predictably, charged at them with their swords drawn.

"Now's the time to put your skills to use, sonny."

A wide smirk grew on Sonic's features.

"Of course."

Then he lunged.

What happened next was a blur of dust and blue as far as all parties involved were concerned, but if one were to slow down the action, they would find a cobalt-blue hedgehog mercilessly slamming into the very unfortunate jackals, whose swords couldn't even land a hit on the Blue Blur as he picked them off one by one.

When it all settled, Sonic was standing triumphantly with that same smirk still on his face, amongst the unconsious forms of the Jackal Squad members.

"Are you sure they're..." Chuck trailed off, staring at the broken-looking bodies.

"Yep," replied the younger hedgehog, rubbing the underside of his nose- Give him some credit; he'd only cut loose just a little bit, and he generally refrained from causing serious harm to living objects- "Lead the way."

At that, Charles sent one last glance at the jackals before continuing on the walk, with Sonic trailing after him.

G.U.N Headquarters - 8:45 AM

"Commander Tower, this is Agent Topaz."

Abraham Tower's gaze snapped over to the source of the voice. The human, a tall and imposing man with greying hair and heterochromatic eyes, had been sorting out some paperwork that needed to be done. Being the Commander of The Guardian Units of Nations- a military organization designed to keep the peace on the world stage- was a very busy job, after all, as it meant that any and all missions fell under his jurisdiction.

One such mission was an expedition to the snowy tundras of Holoska to investigate the sighting of some kind of bogey that had supposedly been sighted by locals. Now, the team that had been sent out hadn't found the mysterious bogey, but they had found something else.

That something else was a damaged pod containing the frozen-over yet perfectly preserved remains of a black and red Mobian hedgehog. This led to two surprises:

First of all, the body was that of the end-result of something called "Project Shadow", which was a project commenced over fifty years ago to create a creature that doubled as both a bio-engineered cure for all sorts of illnesses and, due to G.U.N.'s influence- the organization was a lot more morally dubious back in those days- a hoverskate-wearing super-soldier.

After an 'incident', in reality caused by the very morally dubious G.U.N. of fifty years ago, the project was canned and its head scientist and founder executed. Which led to the second surprise:

The 'corpse' was not actually a corpse after all.

After being thawed out, the hedgehog had exhibited a pulse within the first hour, and so arrangements were quickly made to bring the creature to G.U.N. headquarters and Agent Topaz had been placed in charge of Project Shadow's recovery. She was most likely calling to give an update on the situation.

"This is Commander Tower. What is it?" asked Tower, getting straight to the point.

"Sir.. Project Shadow is awake."

Awake.

It was awake.

The project was awake.

As that detail sank in, Abraham abruptly shot up from his seat. Feeling around his person for a handgun, he turned back to the communicator in the office.

"I'm on my way." He simply replied, walking past the grey walls and the mahogany desk to exit the room. From there, he briskly walked down a hallway, ignoring the surprised glances of loitering agents, and booked an elevator then pressing a sequence of buttons before the doors closed obligingly.

Several minutes passed, but eventually, the elevator dinged and opened. Tower stepped out, walked down the quite deserted hall and opened a door..

Only to be met by a pair of piercing red eyes.

The hedgehog that sat in the room had jet black fur, with red stripes on its head quills, arms and legs. It wore a pair of white and crimson hoverskates as footwear, and golden rings over its gloveless wrists and feet.

Tower fully stepped into the room. The walls were a sickly, hospital-like shade of white, but the floor was an ashy gray. Nodding at the blonde woman in the room- for that was Agent Topaz, as a form of greeting which she returned, the humans focused on the striped elephant in the room.

"Project Shadow," began the human, "Well, I'll be."

"Who are you?" asked the Mobian in a masculine and steely voice that was hoarse from disuse. Spending so much time in stasis would do that to a person.

"I am Abraham Tower, commander of the Guardian Units of Nations, an international military organization. And who might you be?"

The striped hedgehog's lip curled at an end. "You said it yourself. I am Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Alright, Shadow," said Tower, "Do you know just where you are?"

"A bunker of yours, I presume."

"Close enough." replied Tower. It was time to drop the bombshell.

"You've been in a state of suspended animation for quite a while. Several decades, in fact."

If Shadow felt any shock, he didn't show it.

"With all due respect, do you honestly expect me to believe that?"

"Take a look outside if you don't believe me." replied Tower, gesturing to a window that sat neatly on the walls. The window displayed bustling streets and skyscrapers as far as the eyes could see- just futuristic-looking enough to support the G.U.N. commander's point.

The super soldier's back was turned to them as he observed the sights, but a single furry ear swivelled in their direction- a clear sign to continue.

"I am aware that this a very drastic change from-"

"Just what do you want?"

The question was calm, short and to the point, and Abraham rearranged his thoughts before speaking again. This could either go very right or very wrong.

"I believe that we can come to an agreement."

At that, Shadow turned back to the humans, his probing gaze thoroughly examining the two humans in the room.

"I'm listening."